How does Charge bonus work?

[RedKnight]

Thanks econ, I like most every point you made about TWS2, including liking katana cav in general. But there is one place where yari cav is better: If/when you get into a fight with other cav. (Although one might, of course, try to not do that much.)

Although the charge bonus makes sense in the real world, it's just too much work in most S2 battles, for me. (Although we all love the charge graphics, hehe.) Unfortunately this may also mean that Warhorse provinces (=charge bonus) may not be all that good, as intended... maybe cav should simply be made in a Smithing province.

If one charges into the back of a committed infantry unit, it's entirely possible that your cav go flying through not only them, but your own infantry that the enemy is engaging... if it's anything like arrows, I bet "friendly fire" can happen there, too.

[Azi Tohak]

Although the charge bonus makes sense in the real world, it's just too much work in most S2 battles, for me. (Although we all love the charge graphics, hehe.) Unfortunately this may also mean that Warhorse provinces (=charge bonus) may not be all that good, as intended... maybe cav should simply be made in a Smithing province.

Agreed. I'm going to keep that in mind in the future. I was pretty excited to use the Takeda to get their great homegrown cavalry. Too bad they're not as good as my smithy cav I've made from other clans!

[RedKnight]

Agreed. I'm going to keep that in mind in the future. I was pretty excited to use the Takeda to get their great homegrown cavalry. Too bad they're not as good as my smithy cav I've made from other clans!

Huh ok... I'm really just starting to learn and have yet to play Takeda, but right, a max Warhorse Province gets +5 charge, whereas max Smith gets +4 melee (choose defense or offense) ... if you're only going to charge once then melee the rest of a battle, +4 continuously sounds better than +5 once to me.

Said another way, my general impression is that cav has approx 20 charge bonus, depending. Adding 5 (and the final Warhorse upgrade is an expensive Art) adds 25%. Compare that Smithing applies to everyone (and I mean everyone), and doesn't require a single Art... meanwhile, melee defense and offense is generally in the 5 to 10 range.

I'm sure there can be a few real cool exceptions to this rule, but it still sounds like a good rule.

Also you can consider that if you're going to make a very few, very good unit-producing provinces, you have spent less money on castle building and on the (continuous) food they need, if you make one primo smith province (including cavalry and encampment bonus) versus a smith province (without cavalry but with encampment) and a Warhouse province (that also has yari, katana, encampment), see?

* edit * added second paragraph - and starting a new thread asking if Warhouse provinces are effectively broken for making cavalry

[Slaists]

In my experience, the charge bonus (for all units, not only cavalry) is rather useless. You get the full benefit of it only if the unit is perfectly aligned and there are no terrain impediments on the unit's path to the target. More often than not, that will not be the case (i.e., some soldier will stumble over a mole mound causing the whole unit to lose the bonus).